June 4, 2011
Last month was Dog Bite Prevention Awareness Month. Every year in the U.S., nearly one million people are bitten bad enough by a dog to require a hospital visit. To many people, those bites may seem to be out-of-the-blue. However, those of us in the "know", know better.
Positively.com reports: Says Dianne Fabretti, a registered veterinary technician for the Sacramento County Animal Care and Regulation, “We read [bite reports] and it tends to be people don’t know body language of animals [and] they don’t exhibit proper behavior to the animals so the animal behaves as an animal.”
She emphasizes further, “People don’t educate their children as to how to handle and act around animals. I know that. I have one son and two stepsons and I was always amazed what kids do and how much more training kids need in terms of how to act around the animals.”
It’s all in the education according to Fabretti and the worst part, is that when children are not taught what to do and what to avoid around dogs, dogs get into situations where they need to defend themselves and the results are not only bad for the kids but can be much worse for the dog. Says Fabretti, “When animals do bite, people get emotional. The [dogs] end up here and most are euthanized.”
It is the ALWAYS the responsibility of the parent to teach their children appropriate dog interaction, and to monitor those children around the family dog. It is my hope that this blog series will help educate parents on this subject.
* The above italicized information taken from Why Dogs Bite Children-
http://positively.com/2011/05/17/why-dogs-bite-children-a-lesson-in-preventing-dog-bites-in-kids/
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